Some considerations in transitioning from an "individual contributor" to a
management role in production engineering.

This is based on a document I wrote a couple of years ago at work. The
question of my becoming a manager came up, so I had a series of brief
discussions with people who know a thing or two about it. This is my synthesis
from notes; any errors are mine.

Some of this is perhaps specific to a large company,
but I think a lot applies generally to engineering management. As it turned
out, I stuck with being an IC, but discussing it and writing up helped me
decide. I hope others find it useful.

What's good about being a manager?

You can make a big difference to your team and your organization, and you can
influence what is happening in the company at large. You are able to help
people more than as an individual contributor, and it's rewarding to see the
people in your team grow as a result. You can enable people to do cool things.

You will almost inevitably increase your impact (for better or for worse). You
have a high level of responsibility and investment; the success or failure of
your team is on you. You can sharply define your identity, to yourself and to
the rest of the company.

The network you build is good from a promotion point of view, and it may be
easier to be promoted on the engineering management track than the (senior)
engineer track. Remuneration is good.

What's difficult?

You have to deal with sensitive, interesting problems and need to be prepared
for difficult conversations and interactions. Dealing with under-performers or
firing people can be really hard. You need to learn how to do this effectively
to avoid serious team morale and performance problems.

You must adjust your expectations of what it is to feel productive: you lack
independent progress and quick feedback on your performance day by day.
Progress and results are apparent only over very long periods - 6 months or a
year. You need to take a longer view of your achievements and those of your
team. When your work does bear fruit, your part in it may not be visible.

You may have to play a role at work more than as an individual contributor.
What you say and how you say it affects the performance of others directly, and
as such it can be harder to be yourself. It's significantly harder to relax
with the team when ultimately you're responsible for assessing their
performance.

Career options can be limited. For example, moving around in a big company as
an engineer is relatively straightforward; as a manager it can be difficult -
teams relatively rarely have openings for managers. Similarly, your team
winding down or merging with another in the same location can leave you at a
loose end. The way you need to manage your career is different.

In any case, transitioning from individual contributor to manager is likely to
be personally difficult, although the vector for the difficulty varies greatly
between individuals. If you're doing it right it tends to be a growth
experience; and like all such, likely to hurt.

What makes a good manager?

Good engineering managers are technical. This is important. Having a background
as a technical contributor means you have some insight into the day-to-day work
of your team. It's easier to delegate difficult tasks if you've done the same
kind of work yourself.

You need to be interested in taking on a high level of responsibility. Managers
make judgement calls and bear the burden if things go wrong. You have to be
reliable. People need to be able to count on you.

You have to think in a larger frame, set team priorities accordingly, and
assign work that is appropriate, useful and high-impact. You need to know
everything that is going on in your team.

You need to enjoy your job: if you are not happy about what you're doing as a
manager everyone around you will suffer.

How can you avoid being a bad manager?

Finding good mentors (including but not limited to your direct manager) is
important. The learning curve as a new manager is steep.

Delineate responsibilities so it is clear what part your team plays in the
organization. Consider logical ways of organizing responsibilities rather than
historical ones, and push for them. Your team must own its success or failure,
and not be in a dependent position. Make sure you own your objectives and that
the team has room to progress.

If you think of a spectrum between "working for the business" and "working for
the team/person", you can be a poor manager by being at either extreme. There
needs to be a good balance here.

Delegate; trust your team. Listen carefully to what they are telling you and
make sure you put yourself in a position to help them. Don't take on too much
external responsibility and lose interaction with your team as a result. Don't
be a choke-point for information flow into and out of your team.

Have enough meetings to make progress, and learn how to make meetings
successful.

Be prepared to drop technical issues that interest you, and focus on getting
technical work done by organizing your team instead.

What are good reasons to become a manager?

You're excited by working more closely with people and nurturing them. You're
interested in how organizations work, how teams work, and how large things get
accomplished. You believe that you will contribute more than you could as an
individual contributor.

And bad ones?

You think it will look good on your CV. You love the feeling of power. You want
to build a glorious empire. You're being pushed into it by someone else.

How could you explore being a manager?

Training can be useful, both at the individual contributor and manager levels.
That said, there's big switch and learning curve when you go from having no
reports to having some.

The nearest prior experience you can get is management-style work, for example
leading a project with others or finding a project where you can take
significant responsibility. Getting to know other managers and finding out what
they need help with at the management layer can be useful.

In any case, you need a transition plan. Talk with your manager(s)/mentor(s)
about what your plan could look like. Note that doing management does not
necessarily equate to having a management job title. There are plenty of
senior people with management responsibility who don't.

If being a manager is something you want to try, understand that if you can't
make it work for you in the long run you can always step back.

Should you do this?

You can think about the difference between junior and senior people as junior
people adding force where senior people multiply it, i.e. help everyone to be
more effective. One way to "multiply" in this sense is to manage people;
another is to continue as a senior individual contributor. It's comparatively
easy to be a multiplier as a manager, but it's a different skill set. Consider
the best way for you, but understand that companies do need senior ICs, and
going into management is not the only way to progress.

Make sure this is something you want to do. It needs to be driven by you, not
by circumstance or your managers. It needs to be the direction you want to go
in.